Traditional approaches to aid and development are failing us. It’s time to invest in community-driven change.
By Mary A. Kabati, Ronah K. Lubinda, Adela Materu, Kingsley Makuwila, Jones Mwalwanda, Prosper Ndaiga and Moses Zulu
If COVID-19 and the recent uprisings for racial justice around the world have made one thing clear, it is this: the global development sector needs to radically rebuild itself from the ground up. As leaders of community-based organizations in Tanzania, Zambia, and Malawi, we have already been sounding the alarm on the challenges of the traditional structures of aid and development. Now, we are coming together to say that enough is enough – the fragility of the global aid and development system, and systems of oppression and colonialism that have underpinned it, can no longer be ignored.
International, Global North-led development is failing to effect real, sustainable, systemic change in Africa and across the Global South, and that failure is rooted in donors’ relationships with communities. Funders from the Global North must radically review how and who they fund and their relationships with the communities they seek to serve, or they will find that they are creating more problems than they are solving. It is no longer sufficient that donors have good intentions and deep pockets. It’s time for community-driven systems change.
We have seen firsthand the shortcomings of the current system of global aid and development, watching the repetitive cycle of short term, unsustainable, top-down programming come through our communities and seeing it fail to achieve long term change. Our deep relationships and contextual understanding of power structures and local priorities have been dismissed by international donors, who rely on unrealistic and unchallenged metrics of success that have little grounding in reality. We’ve been dictated to by donors and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), with ‘one-size-fits-all’ strategies that set us up for failure. But we’ve also seen the path forward.
Too many funders still assume that having resources is somehow correlated with being best placed to decide how to allocate, to whom, and how to spend those resources. This underlying, often unspoken, assumption is poisoning sincere efforts to do good, and frustrating the ability of the actual local experts to do their work. Committing to community-driven systems change must start with a mindset shift that recognizes that this assumption is false. From there, donors can take on the practical work of building new, high impact strategies and funding practices rooted in local relationships. Funders must invest in an approach grounded in justice and solidarity, not charity and aid. This includes local community ownership of projects from the beginning and abandoning rigid one-size-fits-all programs in favor of nuance and flexibility. It means investing sustainably, with exit strategies articulated early so communities can plan and avoid dependency. It means providing reliable funding and allowing CBOs and staff to invest their time in meeting the needs of the community, not catering to the whims of donors. And it means transparency and trust at every level.
This can feel daunting to donors who have previously centered Global North leadership above that of communities themselves. But guidance is available. Before the pandemic began, the Firelight Foundation, who we each partner with, commissioned a report to explore exactly this question – how can Global North-based funders work to best support the communities they cared about and best leverage the expertise of community based partners? Answering that question took over three years, with extensive surveys, in-depth interviews and conversations, and in-person visits to programs and communities in a process of co-creation with stakeholders. A common theme emerged across this extensive research: Community leaders feel held-back by current global development practices. The overwhelming impression is that the billions of dollars spent by the Global North development sector have yielded minimal results, largely because community ownership and consultation is lacking. Questions were even raised about whether some investments had done more harm than good. External agendas and imposed priorities force local leaders to disregard their own knowledge, which is the medicine of local conditions, and instead adopt strategies that are guided more by the desires of donors than by the needs of communities.
So how can you make change? Here are some of the key recommendations we endorse from the report:
Recognize the colonial structures that you and your organization might be perpetuating
Reconceptualize the role of community-based organizations (CBOs) in global development efforts
Redefine success, impact, sustainability, and effectiveness
Reimagine funder-CBO relationships in ways that reflect mutual respect
There’s no denying that foreign aid plays a critical role in addressing the needs of low-income communities. The answer here is not for traditional actors or donors to totally withdraw – instead, it is about reimagining relationships and structures to better address the issues. This work is complex, and rarely linear. It might feel frustrating or counter-intuitive. Exposing and acknowledging failure is a vulnerable but essential process for progress. The COVID-19 pandemic and the global demand for racial justice has made it clear that this kind of change cannot wait. Global development and aid must catch up or it will be held accountable for the harms it is perpetuating.
We have abundant evidence that community-driven systems change is feasible, effective and achievable. We have the models and resources ready for anyone who is prepared to take the leap and join this movement for a stronger, more effective, more just version of global development. A better future is calling to us all – now it’s up to you to seize the opportunity.
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About the authors: Mary A. Kabati is the Executive Director of Tanzania Home Economics Association – Mwanza, based in Tanzania. Ronah K. Lubinda is the Programme Coordinator of the Mulumbo Early Childhood Care and Development Foundation, based in Zambia. Adela Materu is the Executive Coordinator of KIWAKKUKI, based in Tanzania. Kingsley Makuwila is the Program Officer of Nancholi Community-Based Organization, based in Malawi. Jones Mwalwanda is the Executive Director of the Foundation for Community Livelihood and Development, based in Malawi. Prosper Ndaiga is the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Manager for Agape AIDS Control Program, based in Tanzania. Moses Zulu is the Executive Director of the Luapula Foundation, based in Zambia.